Location: Shanghai, China
On our first night in Shanghai many of us ate on the ship, but sat outside (which was very chilly). At night buildings on both sides of the river light up like Las Vegas on crack. There was a running commentary of “wait-wait-wait, look at that building now!” The engineer in me thinks it’s a huge waste of energy and money, but it does look striking.
I started the next day with a bus tour of the city (as I normally do in a new city). Shanghai is not an ancient city with tons of century old architecture. We started in the older part of town, in the Bund – a series of European style stone buildings that once held banks and trading houses. We then visited the “concessions“, which is a term I have never heard before dealing with real estate. The French Concession and British Concessions had the look that you would expect. There were Elizabethan town homes with back yards, just like you would find in Europe.
I’ve seen buildings like that before, so I took no pictures. However, I noticed all the flowers and trees. Shanghai even places flowers in their traffic control structures.
We walked in a local park, and I saw some folks doing Tai Chi with swords.
There was also a good view of one of the distinctive buildings, the Tomorrow Square.
As we drove from the old city to the newer city, it became obvious there were many scooters in Shanghai. However, the law says they must be electric. So, there was no continuous lawnmower whine and stinking clouds of pollution.
We crossed the river and entered Luijazui, the newer city with the skyscrapers I took pictures of yesterday. Shanghai has had a reputation of a city of construction cranes. But that seems to be ending. There are now few construction cranes, and while our cruise line terminal is under construction, the city looks… almost done.
Our first stop was a view of the Oriental Pearl from below.
We did a quick drive around, and then went to the top of the Jin Mao Tower – 88 stories. There I took the opposite picture from last night. That is the Silver Whisper in the center, docked across the river.
And here are some of the surrounding buildings.
Turns out the upper part of the tower is hollow.
On the observation deck there was a “good luck” money tree that you can hang your wishes on.
Upon returning to the bottom, we were met by the building’s mascot. Remember those shapes on his head and in his hands are historical symbols for money – gold and silver bars. “Jin Mao” means “Golden Prosperity”.
Dinner Entertainment
We returned to the ship, and I got ready for dinner and a show – which I missed last night because of the ship being delayed due to fog. About sixty of us went to a local hotel for Chinese food. I have no pictures, as I’ve eaten food in most proper Chinese restaurants, I’ve eaten in back home that was as good (not the take outs).
But to show how spoiled I’ve gotten on this cruise – this was the first time I’ve used paper napkins in two months.
Then we were off to see the acrobats. They requested we not take pictures, which was a shame. My review:
- They juggled everything – balls, squares, hoops. If you are missing something in your home, it’s because they juggled it on stage last night.
- One jiggled over a dozen hula hoops at once
- A team “danced” with hourglass shaped gyros. The soloist kept a large version on a string and flung it over the audience, where the team tossed them back and forth to each other.
- They balanced on drums, and played hacky-sack with drums, then stood on the drum while they hacky-sacked each other, while hacky-sacking other drums.
For the finale, they brought out a 15-foot metal hamster ball, and a guy in a motorcycle entered it – driving all around. Then a second guy joined him. And a third. And a fourth, fifth, Sixth and SEVENTH!
It was bananas. What a show.